Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Walking Dead Theology #1

I know, I know. It seems odd to put the Walking Dead and Theology together, but I really do love both zombies and God, what can I say? (But of course, I love God more than zombies…a lot more…) Right now, I have just finished the season finale of the Walking Dead season 2.

One thing I noticed in this TV show is that the living from different backgrounds would naturally merge together through different occasions. It gives them better chance of survival as a crowd than as individuals. As a crowd, they are able to contribute different strengths that help them fight the zombies and live on. The leader of the survivor group the show focuses on is Rick, who was a small town sheriff.

The setting of the survivor group reminds me of the sheep and shepherd themes in the Bible, in which Christ is the leader – the good shepherd of the sheep. The sheep are as yummy to the wolves as the living to the zombies. The daily lives of the sheep are a lot like that of the living in the Walking Dead, daily we battle the wolves and try our best to stay alive.

Something that bothered me about the Walking Dead is that in the season finale, the group left one person behind without taking the risk to go back and rescue her from the farm that was overran by the zombies. Rick said to the remaining, “She’s probably dead, and even if she is not, she’s probably not there anymore. We won’t be able to find her.” Rick made it sound so reasonable, and so they moved on.

Fortunately, in the real world, that is not how Christ works. If it was Christ in the Walking Dead, He would definitely leave the 99 survivors in a safe place, and go back alone to find that 1 missing person; and if there’s a “boss zombie” to fight with, Christ would definitely sacrifice Himself for all the survivors. And in real life, that is exactly what Christ has already done for us – His hardhearted, stubborn and stupid sheep, who don’t listen to Him very well.

In the Church, we should be more like Christ than Rick. Instead of letting the weaker ones go, the shepherds need to strive to help them catch up. When the weaker ones fell, instead of comforting ourselves by saying, “oh well, too bad, but let’s let bygones be bygones…” we should let the sorrow remind us the value of life. There’s a quote saying, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” But it must not be so to Christ’s shepherds! Each person has different strengths and weaknesses, each life is valuable, each one has real feelings, and each sheep deserves us to fight for.

As Christ’s shepherds ministering to free countries such as the US and Taiwan, we are less likely having to sacrifice our lives. But the sacrifices we may have to make could be our personal tastes, preferences, likes and dislikes, pride and comfort zone. But if Christ loved us enough to walk into the zombie zones to rescue us, shouldn’t we sacrifice the least we could for the sheep He led to us?